


No, it Don't Make Sense

by Maggiee24



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Angst, Based on an Anamatic, Characters are around 15 for the purposes of this story, Gen, Major character death - Freeform, So 'round about inspired by Parade (the musical), Which uses a song from a Musical, like major angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-12
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-19 07:40:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29996073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maggiee24/pseuds/Maggiee24
Summary: Ladybug is struck down in battle and the Miraculous team must come to terms with the death of their leader. Meanwhile Hawkmoth is undettered by the death of a child in his persuit of bring back his wife from the brink of death, and continues his fight for the Ladybug and Cat Mircaculous'. Stricken with grief, Adrien must pick up Marinette's mantle and lead the Miraculous team in defeating Hawkmoth.Set somewhere after season two but early enough in season three that Chloe is still acting as Queen Bee and no one beyond Chloe, Alya and Nino have been recruited as Miraculous wielders.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Kudos: 3





	No, it Don't Make Sense

**Author's Note:**

  * For [electragoob on YouTube](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=electragoob+on+YouTube).
  * Inspired by [Miraculous: No, it Don't Make Sense (Death of Ladybug Part 1)](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/775329) by electragoob. 



> This story contains the death of a major character, and it remains at that level of saddness the whole way through. This is not a happy story with a happy ending, you have been warned.  
> First two chapters are based off of an animatic by the same name (No, it Don't Make Sense) created by electragoob on youtube. It is amazing and you should totatlly go watch it first: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnpUU_zvYSo. The video has recently been updated to continue the story with more videos, but I had started writing before this update, and as such after the events of the first video (Chapters 1 & 2) my story deviates. We went in similar but distinct directions so I thought I should clear that up now. I have saught and been given permission from electragoob to write the story of that first animatic, though that was many months ago now, so they have likely forgotten about it (whoops).  
> Also just a heads up, a lot of dialogue is ripped from the song "No, it Don't Make Sense/There is a Fountain" from the musical Parade, which is the song played in the animatic. It doesn't all fit perfectly with the characters speaking, though I fixed it up as much as I could, but the song and its words are such an intergral part of the whole story that it would defy the point to not include them.

# The Funeral

_There is a fountain filled with blood  
Drawn from Immanuel's veins  
And sinners plunged beneath that flood  
Lose all their guilty stains,  
Lose all their guilty stains,  
Lose all their guilty stains,  
And sinners plunged beneath that flood  
Lose all their guilty stains._

There is a fountain filled with blood - William Cowper

# _________

"Don't be bemused, it's just the news. I'm Nadja Chamack, and today I join you from Père Lachaise Cemetery. Where hero of Paris, Ladybug, recently revealed as Marinette Dupain-Cheng, was honoured in a ceremony that surely touched the hearts of every Parisian. The simple white coffin, adorned with a Ladybug motif, was carried by six of her young friends. Several more of her friends volunteered to serve as pallbearers, but they were each deemed too small to shoulder the burden." Nadja spoke clear and calm, proud of herself for not letting the reality of what she was saying affect her. Arlette zoomed out from the close shot of Nadja's portrait and panned the camera to reveal hundreds of people still gathered at the base of the closed casket.  


"Recent heavy rain made the garden vibrant with life as Marinette Dupain-Cheng, just two months shy of sixteen was lain to her final rest. Her life given protecting the people of Paris from Hawkmoth, a mysterious figure that has been assaulting Paris for over a year now." Arlette focused the camera on the sight of a young woman handing Marinette's mother a rose, each with tears spilling down their cheeks as they spoke. The petit blond then turned to the taller, raven haired woman beside her and buried herself in their arms, shoulders shaking violently as Marinette's mother turned away to similarly clutch at her husband. Moment over, Arlette went back to slowly panning over the crowd as Nadji looked for someone to approach. 

She spotted Adrian Agrest who seemed to have slipped his bodyguard and father’s assistant and was pacing away from the gathered crowd. Nadja had seen him with Marinette before, and knew that now would be her chance to speak to someone who had known Ladybug personally. Signalling to Arlette, Nadja made her way over and spoke before the young man had a chance to spot her and move away. "Monsoir Agrest, you must have known Marinette very well."  


Adrian startled, he was waiting on a call from Fu over Tikki's condition and wasn't prepared to talk to anyone, let alone a reporter. He was tempted to brush her off, run away so he could watch the burial procession from a better vantage point as Chat Noir. But he could see the red light that indicated that the camera in his face was indeed filming, and he knew his father would have an aneurism over him acting so terribly in public, especially on film. So, taking a deep breath through his nose Adrian faced the camera and put on the best smile he could manage.  


"Yes Madame, I did." It was only after speaking that he caught himself using past tense. She wasn't even in the ground yet and he'd already given up on her.  
"Then this must be a very hard day for you." Nadja spoke with sympathy, but Adrian couldn't help being filled with acid at the reporter’s words. How could she stand there and say such a thing? This woman that new Marinette intimately and yet could stand here and ambush Ladybug's friends just to get a story. Before he could spit the vitriol though he pictured Marinette and his bitterness fell away. He remembered the interview they'd given Nadja as Ladybug and Chat Noir, recalled how much his lady had hated it and yet he'd seen Marinette with the woman's daughter not a week later. If Marinette could forgive this woman for her nosiness, he should too.  


"Did you ever hear her laugh? When she laughed, you swore you’d never cry again" He started softly, closing his eyes to better see Marinette and Ladybug both as he spoke.  
"Did you ever see her smile? Her smile was like a glass of lemonade."  
"And what was Ladybug like behind the mask?" Reprieve broken Adrian's eyes snapped open and he used his friends name almost reverently, desperate to make people see her as a person and not just a face behind a mask.  


"Marinette said funny things, designed the prettiest dresses, and liked to watch my photoshoots." Those had been his favourite shoot days when Marinette would appear and hover around his peripherals. Sometimes she came alone, sometimes with Alya in tow and he always enjoyed talking to them whenever he got a break. He had always thought that it was just her interest in fashion, at seeing how the process worked, but he knew better now. His throat caught thinking about it, so he cleared his throat and carried on.  
"She loved riding swings, and Andre's ice-cream, but I think she liked the photoshoots most of all."  


Adrian couldn’t keep his voice level and found he didn't care anymore as he continued unprompted,  
"It just doesn't make sense, that she won't be here anymore. It just doesn't make sense to bury her in this cold and lonely ground. It just doesn’t make sense for the world to have let her fall." His voice cracked on the last word. The sight of Ladybug plunging from the edge of a building and Marinette appearing at the bottom burning with the tears in the corner of his eyes. This finally seemed to affect the reporter, hearing her throat click as he mentioned her fall.  
"It just doesn’t make sense." Adrian finished softly, defeated, and ready for the interview to just be over.  


Without him realising a crowd had gathered behind him. Most were glaring at Nadja, it seemed he wasn't the only one upset by her presence. But instead of getting angry, the crowd instead started calling out all the things they’d loved about Marinette.  
"She had the cutest pigtails."  
"She always had ink on her fingers."  
"She was the best class representative."  
"Once a week she'd sit with me for lunch."  
"She was so cleaver."  
"She smiled at everyone."  


"I can't believe he took my best friend away from me. That she won't be here anymore, it just doesn’t make sense." Alya's voice beside him was startling, she'd pushed her way to his side with Nino and they stayed there giving him silent support. Adrian felt his tears start to fall and felt compelled to add once more,  
"When she laughed, you swore you'd never cry again." Alya laughed wetly, wrapped in Nino's arms and threading her fingers through his hand.  
"She loved when I tied ribbons in her hair." This time it was Marinette's mother that spoke from his other side. Both her and Marinette's father had moved to his side and pulled him into a sideways hug.  


It was all too much. His father was off God knows where, doing God knows what instead of supporting his son. Instead, he had his dead partners parents offering him their support. It was their daughter in that casket! And here they were comforting him. Something in him broke in that moment and when Nadja spoke again he lost all control.  
"Tell me Mr Agrest, do you have any idea who did it?"  
Hawkmoth was to blame for this, they all knew, but speculation as to his identity was especially high now that their hero had fallen.  


"God forgive me what I think, God forgive me what I wish right now. I don't know the cowards name; I don’t know the bastard's face. But I swear right now to God; he's never going to get away with what he did to Marinette." Adrian's voice was rising with each word, breaking free from those surrounding him as he spoke and approaching the camera as he continued.  
"Let him quiver in his boots! Let him run until he bleeds! I won't rest until I know he's burning in the raging fires of Hell!" He was practically shouting by the end, the camera man and reporter continually backing up as he approached until they got caught against a monument.  


Before he could go on anymore though, Chloe grabbed him and pulled him away from the scared news team. Dragging him relentlessly until they were secluded from the rest of the mourners. Alya and Nino had followed them, and they stood silently in a loose circle for several tense moments. Chloe had clearly been crying a lot, she'd hardly spoken in the last two days and the lack of makeup on her face left her sleepless nights on view for all. Alya wasn't in a much better shape, but he knew her lack of sleep was more to do with research. Nino looked the best of all of them, which wasn't saying much, he was putting on a brave face, but he was just as weighed down by the loss as the rest of them.  


Adrian thought one of the women might chastise him for his outburst. All the anger had drained from him now, leaving him exhausted and he wasn't sure he could take the criticism right now. But instead, Chloe just fell to her knees in the grass and started weeping. It spoke volumes when Alya didn’t say anything and just followed her lead, crumpling in place. Nino following suit close to but giving space to Alya. Adrian felt so hopeless in that moment. His friends, his teammates where just as distraught as him without Ladybug, without Marinette. How could he ever hope to step into her place? He'd been learning what he could from Fu, but there was just so much Marinette had taken care of, so much responsibility that she'd borne silently.  


Adrian pulled at his hair in frustration and just started yelling incoherently. He didn't care if people heard him, or what his father might think of him losing his calm in public. All he wanted to do was curl up in bed and wake up from this nightmare. After some time, he joined the others in the grass. Clawing at the dirt with his stupidly well-manicured fingers and sobbing into the earth. 

#  ___________

##### 

____

__Across the city in the comfort of his home office Gabriel Agrest watched in mounting horror as Paris's main superhero had her funeral immortalised on national television. The woman's identity had been revealed when she died while protecting Paris from the latest in a slew of villains created by the now infamous Hawkmoth. It had spread with alarming speed and once people realised that the hero of Paris was a fifteen-year-old child the outrage had only multiplied.  
_ _

____

Killing either the Ladybug or Cat Miraculous holders had never been a part of his plan. They were just supposed to succumb to capture so he could take their Miraculous and nothing more. While ruthless in his pursuit, Gabriel would have never considered himself a murderer. Certainly not a killer of children. But that was what he had become. Hawkmoth was supposed to be a means to an end, a mask used to save face as he sought the means to bring his wife back to life.  


____

Never had he dreamed that his actions would lead to the death of a fifteen-year-old child. One he knew no less. And that was what struck him most. She was not some random pawn he could have accepted sacrificing. He had known her; she went to school with his son, was his son's friend, and he had admired her design abilities. Marinette Dupain-Cheng was not just the teenager he had thought he could manipulate for his purposes as Hawkmoth, she had been Ladybug. A miraculous holder of unprecedented power that had thwarted his plans time and time again.  


____

He could feel the resentment building, that was good. She wasn't just some child; she was his greatest adversary and now she was out of the way. Now was the time he should strike, while the other heroes were still scrambling to deal with her death. Gabriel was preparing to leave his desk for his lair when he spotted Adrian on one of the many news feeds he'd been monitoring.  


____

His heart clenched and he fell back into his chair heavily as he watched his son give a live interview. Watched as his son broke down the more he spoke. Saw as people gathered around him and joined in his admiration of Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Witnessed the friends he'd tried so hard to keep away and the girls own parents offering his son comfort. He was too numb to react as Adrian lost his composure, screamed at the camera about what he wanted to do to Hawkmoth. To his own father. Albeit unknowingly.  


____

Gabriel felt a wave of relief that he had never shared his secret identity with his son. The guilt that followed driving him to stand and leave the room. Completely oblivious to everything around him as he made his way to his wife's side. Thoughts swirling as he pressed his forehead into the glass of her life support pod and wished more than ever that he could hold her close. 


End file.
